Tag: Jim Bridenstine

An engineer works on attaching NASA’s Mars Helicopter to the belly of the Mars 2020 rover – which has been flipped over for that purpose – on Aug. 27, 2019, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA/JPL-Caltech PR) — Engineers attached NASA’s Mars Helicopter, which will be the first aircraft to fly on another planet, to the belly of the Mars 2020 rover today in the High Bay 1 clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“I am disappointed by the decision from NASA to not place the lunar lander program management at the Johnson Space Center (JSC),” said Babin. “Marshall Space Flight Center does tremendous work for our nation’s space program, but the knowledge base and skill set for this task unquestionably resides at JSC where the Apollo lunar lander program was successfully managed. Yesterday, I joined Senators Cruz and Cornyn in sending a letter to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine requesting that this decision be reconsidered.”

To view the letter sent to Administrator Bridenstine, pleaseclick here.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., August 16, 2019 (NASA PR) — NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was joined Friday by U.S. Representatives Mo Brooks and Robert Aderholt of Alabama and Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to announce the center’s new role leading the agency’s Human Landing System Program for its return to the Moon by 2024.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is set to speak at Marshall Space Flight Center on Friday where he is expected to announce that the Alabama field center will manage the lander being designed to land American astronauts on the moon by 2024.

Members of Texas’ Congressional delegation are urging Bridenstine to hold off on the decision.

U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) along with Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) today urged NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine to reconsider his decision and refrain from an official announcement until an official briefing is held.

In a letter to Administrator Bridenstine, the lawmakers wrote:

“The Johnson Space Center has served as NASA’s lead center for human spaceflight for more than half a century. […] ‘Houston’ was one of the first words ever uttered on the Moon, and Houston, the city that last sent man to the Moon, should be where the lander that will once again send Americans to the lunar surface is developed. Accordingly, we request that you reconsider this decision, and hold off on any formal announcements until we can receive a briefing on this matter that includes the timeline, projected cost, and rationale for this decision.”

No word yet on whether the event will go on as scheduled at 3:10 p.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 16. The remarks will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

A press release and the letter sent to Bridenstine follow.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to a news report that NASA will designate the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to lead the development of the human-classed lunar lander for the Artemis program over the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas – which has served as NASA’s lead center for human spaceflight for more than half a century – U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) along with Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) today urged NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine to reconsider his decision and refrain from an official announcement until an official briefing is held.

In a letter to Administrator Bridenstine, the lawmakers wrote:

“The Johnson Space Center has served as NASA’s lead center for human
spaceflight for more than half a century. […] ‘Houston’ was one of the
first words ever uttered on the Moon, and Houston, the city that last
sent man to the Moon, should be where the lander that will once again
send Americans to the lunar surface is developed. Accordingly, we
request that you reconsider this decision, and hold off on any formal
announcements until we can receive a briefing on this matter that
includes the timeline, projected cost, and rationale for this decision.”

In 2018, Sens. Cruz and Cornyn sent a letter with Rep. Babin, and former Reps. John Culberson (R-Texas), and Lamar
Smith (R-Texas) requesting the Johnson Space Center be the location of
the new lunar lander program.

The follow-up letter to Administrator Bridenstine can be read here and below.

We are writing to you today in light of a recent report that this
Friday, August 16, 2019, you plan to announce that the Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama will manage the development of the
lunar lander for the Artemis program and oversee the commercial
development of two of the three elements, the Transfer Element and
Descent Element, of that lander. According to that same report the
Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas, will oversee the commercial
development of only one of three elements, the Ascent Element. This is
very troubling if accurate.

While the Marshall Space Flight Center specializes in rocketry and
spacecraft propulsion, and is undoubtedly the leader in these areas, it
is the Johnson Space Center, which has been, and continues to be, ground
zero for human space exploration. We are deeply concerned that NASA is
not only disregarding this history but that splitting up the work on the
lander between two different geographic locations is an unnecessary and
a counterproductive departure from the unquestionable success of the
previous lunar lander program. The integration of development
responsibilities into one center-ideally the center with the longest
history and deepest institutional knowledge of human space
exploration-would be the most cost-efficient, streamlined, and effective
approach, and is the approach that NASA should pursue.

As you may recall, on August 28, 2018, we sent you a letter
articulating the reasons why the Johnson Space Center would be the most
appropriate home for the lunar lander program. In that letter, we
highlighted the Johnson Space Center’s storied history as the lead
center for human spaceflight and deep experience with human space
exploration, and expressed our strong desire that it be selected as the
NASA Center responsible for establishing and leading the lunar lander
program. While much has changed in the intervening year, our feelings on
this matter have not.

The Johnson Space Center has served as NASA’s lead center for human
spaceflight for more than half a century. It is home to our nation’s
astronaut corps, the International Space Station mission operations, and
the Orion crew, and the men and women working there possess both the
institutional knowledge and technical expertise needed to manage all
facets of the successful development of a lunar lander for the Artemis program. “Houston” was one of the first words ever uttered on the Moon,
and Houston, the city that last sent man to the Moon, should be where
the lander that will once again send Americans to the lunar surface is
developed.

Accordingly, we request that you reconsider this decision, and hold
off on any formal announcements until we receive a briefing on this
matter that includes the timeline, projected cost, and rational for this
decision.

Please contact Duncan Rankin at 202-224-5922, Andrew Cooper at
202-224-2934, and Steve Janushkowsky at 202-225-1555 with any questions
regarding this request. Thank you for your prompt attention to this
matter.

This independent review will be led by Elizabeth R. Cantwell, the Senior Vice President of Research & Innovation at the University of Arizona. She is jointly commissioned by the heads of the Science Mission Directorate & the Human Exploration & Operations Mission Directorate.

CASIS is the non-profit organization established to manage research on the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory. There has been criticism over the years of CASIS’ leadership and its commercialization of ISS research.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, joined by U.S. Representatives Mo
Brooks, Robert Aderholt, Scott DesJarlais and Brian Babin, will discuss
updates on the agency’s plans for landing humans on the Moon by 2024
through the Artemis program at 3:10 p.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 16. The remarks will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

From the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Bridenstine will discuss the center’s role in
launching astronauts to the Moon and landing them safely on the lunar
surface. Brooks, Aderholt, DesJarlais and Babin also will deliver
remarks, then join the administrator to take questions from the media.

In addition to making this announcement, Bridenstine will view
progress on SLS and other efforts key to landing the first woman and the
next man on the Moon in five years.

GREENBELT, Md. (NASA PR) — NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has named George Morrow to serve as acting director of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, effective Thursday, Aug. 1. Morrow will replace Chris Scolese, who is departing NASA to be the director of the National Reconnaissance Office.

Morrow has been serving as Goddard’s deputy center director since
April 2015 and previously served as both director and deputy director of
the Flight Projects Directorate at Goddard. He began his career at
Goddard in 1983 as the Lead Spacecraft Battery Systems Engineer. He
holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the
University of Virginia and Masters of Engineering Administration degree
from George Washington University.

Scolese is leaving NASA after 32 years of service. He has served as
Goddard’s center director for seven years, before which he was the
agency’s associate administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington,
which included six months as acting NASA administrator in 2009.
Scolese’s career also included tenures as NASA chief engineer and
Goddard’s deputy center director.

Goddard is home to the nation’s largest organization of scientists,
engineers and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments and new
technology to study Earth, the Sun, our solar system and the universe.

Nothing illustrates the changes wrought by the Trump Administration’s decision to move up the deadline for returning astronauts to the moon from 2028 to 2024 than a pair of contracts NASA awarded for the Lunar Gateway that will serve as a staging point for the landing.

In May, Maxar won a competitively awarded $375 million contract to build the Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element (PPE). NASA released a source selection statement that detailed how officials evaluated the five bids they received and why Maxar’s proposal was superior to the others.

The “Green Run” test of the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) will be conducted at the B-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Flight Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (Credits: NASA)

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — In a major step toward returning astronauts to the surface of the Moon under the Artemis lunar exploration program and preparing for future missions to Mars, NASA is seeking comments from American companies interested in providing an integrated human landing system to put the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024.

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with an Orion spacecraft in the background. (Credit: NASA)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — Vice President Mike Pence visited and gave remarks in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the agency’s Apollo 11 Moon landing and announce to America the completion of NASA’s Orion crew capsule for the first Artemis lunar mission.

WASHINGTON (House Science Committee PR) – Yesterday, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) leadership reassigned Mr. William H. Gerstenmaier from his post as Associate Administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate. He will now serve as special assistant to NASA’s Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard. Mr. William Hill, who served with Gerstenmaier as Deputy Associate Administrator of HEO, was also reassigned to now serve as a special advisor to NASA’s Associate Administrator, Steve Jurczyk.

“I am baffled by the NASA Administrator’s decision to abruptly remove the highly respected heads of NASA’s human spaceflight directorate and its Exploration Systems Development office with no permanent successors identified,” said Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX). “The Trump Administration’s ill-defined crash program to land astronauts on the Moon in 2024 was going to be challenging enough to achieve under the best of circumstances. Removing experienced engineering leadership from that effort and the rest of the nation’s human spaceflight programs at such a crucial point in time seems misguided at best. The Administrator needs to explain this personnel action, as well as provide an executable program plan accompanied by a credible budget if Congress is to have any basis for supporting the President’s Moon initiative.”

“As the head of NASA’s human exploration program, William Gerstenmaier has a long, successful track record of shepherding people safely into space,” said Chairwoman Kendra Horn (D-OK) of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. “He had just testified on the future of the International Space Station before the Subcommittee that I chair the morning of the announcement. The Subcommittee found his testimony very important given his technical insight and his depth of NASA experience.

“I was surprised about the Administrator’s announcement. I look forward to speaking further with the Administrator about his decision.

“I am concerned about the impacts that such abrupt leadership changes in our nation’s human space flight programs could have at a time when we are at the threshold of testing the integrated Space Launch System and Orion crew vehicle that will take humans into deep space and the commercial space flight systems that will take our astronauts to the International Space Station.”

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine shook up management of the space agency’s effort to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024 on Wednesday by removing long-time associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) William Gerstenmaier from a post he held for 15 years.

“Effective immediately, Ken Bowersox will serve as Acting Associate Administrator for HEO,” Bridenstine said in a memo. “Bowersox, who previously served as the Deputy Associate Administrator for HEO, is a retired U.S. Naval Aviator with more than two decades of experience at NASA. He is an accomplished astronaut and a veteran of five space shuttle missions and served as commander on the International Space Station.”

On one side, there’s NASA, the Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who say that spectrum in the 24GHz band the government recently auctioned off to private companies will likely result in cell signals that would interfere with accurate weather forecasting.

On the other side is Federal Communications Commission and its chairman, Ajit Pai, who ignored requests to delay the auction while more studies were done. Pai recently toldthe Senate Science Committee to ignore what he called faulty data presented by NASA and NOAA at the 11th hour.

CNN talked to the NASA administrator about the cost of landing astronauts on the moon by 2024.

>The space agency will need an estimated $20 billion to $30 billion over the next five years for its moon project, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told CNN Business on Thursday. That would mean adding another $4 billion to $6 billion per year, on average, to the agency’s budget, which is already expected to be about $20 billion annually.

Bridenstine’s remarks are the first time that NASA has shared a total cost estimate for its moon program, which is called Artemis (after the Greek goddess of the moon) and could send people to the lunar surface for the first time in half a century. NASA wants that mission to include two astronauts: A man and the first-ever woman to walk on the moon.

The $20 to $30 billion cost estimate is less expensive than some had predicted — though they’re not necessarily the final figures. Bridenstine acknowledged that spaceflight can be dangerous and unpredictable, so it’s practically impossible to settle on an accurate price tag.

“We’re negotiating within the administration,” he said. “We’re talking to [the federal Office of Management and Budget]; we’re talking to the National Space Council.” (The National Space Council is a recently revived policy development group headed by Vice President Mike Pence.)

Assuming the amount is indeed all new funds and doesn’t include what’s already being spent on Orion, SLS and other programs, the only way to meet the deadline would be through a combination of increases to NASA’s budget and cuts to other parts of the space agency’s budget.

It should be noted that members of the House, which is controlled by Democrats, have thus far rejected significant cuts in other NASA programs as they have worked through the space agency’s fiscal year 2020 budget. The Republican Senate has not weighed in yet.

The other thing the story suggests is that the $1.6 billion in supplemental spending the Administration has requested for NASA’s budget is likely too low. Especially if the Senate follows the House’s lead in rejecting cuts from other agency programs.